 More than a billion years ago, two black holes in a distant galaxy locked into a spiral, falling inexorably toward each other, and collided. "All that energy was pumped into the fabric of time and space itself," says theoretical physicist Allan Adams, "making the universe explode in roiling waves of gravity." In this mind-bending talk, Adams breaks down what happened when, in September 2015, the LIGO project detected an unthinkably small anomaly, leading to one of the most exciting discoveries in the history of physics. Watch »  When your job hinges on how well you talk to people, you learn a lot about how to have conversations -- and that most of us don't converse very well. Celeste Headlee has worked as a radio host for decades, and she knows the ingredients of a great conversation: Honesty, brevity, clarity and a healthy amount of listening. In this insightful talk, she shares 10 useful rules for having better conversations. "Go out, talk to people, listen to people," she says. "And, most important, be prepared to be amazed." Watch » |  Raffaello D'Andrea develops flying machines, and his team's latest projects are pushing the boundaries of autonomous flight -- from a flying wing that can hover to an eight-propeller craft that's ambivalent to orientation ... to a swarm of tiny coordinated micro-quadcopters. Prepare to be dazzled by a dreamy, swirling array of flying machines as they dance like fireflies above the TED stage. Watch »  Through treating everything from strokes to car accident traumas, neurosurgeon Jocelyne Bloch knows the brain's inability to repair itself all too well. But now, she suggests, she and her colleagues may have found the key to neural repair: taking the brain's own cells and injecting them in a damaged area, where they can grow. "With a little help," Bloch says, "the brain may be able to help itself." Watch » | |
